Living In Hell
by FluffleNeCharka
Summary: Digidestined worldwide are united by the Japanese Chosen. When North Korea demands Taichi talk with their Digidestined, he and Sora go, but something isn't right, and before they can stop it, it all goes wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is just a prolouge to set things up. Future chapters will be much longer, I assure you.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Taichi Yagami was nervous.

There had been Digidestined all over the world, of course. He knew that. He'd met the Digidestined of Thailand just last week to discuss the legality of crossing each others borders to help one another. He'd seen the leader of the Chinese Digidestined, Yuehon, on TV giving interviews about the sixty three Digidestined scattered throughout her country. One of them was blind, and Yuehon had to defend the boy's right to be a Digidestined. Taichi had exchanged emails with the South Korean Digidestined, who were apparently all cousins and therefore very close. The Poi Brothers in Hong Kong still sent Hikari emails. (Which she ignored, because it had gone from cute to excessive at this point.) Vietnam even had one - had, past tense, unfortunately, but still.

So it made sense that there were Digidestined in countries he hadn't thought there would be. With time pretty much every country was getting their own, although some were taking longer than others. Yuehon had been active for a year before the other Chinese Digidestined appeared. The Poi Brothers had been around for nearly four years. Some places only got their Chosen last week. All of this was not what scared him. All of this made sense. Actually, what was happening that freaked him out still made sense regardless. It just didn't make sense nobody had thought of this before. They should have known this would happen. After all, even African countries were getting Digidestined at this point. Everyone was.

Still, he'd asked Koushiro if he was sure. Really sure? Really, really sure? Okay, then. That meant the diplomatic trip of a lifetime. Time to put all his charm to good use and pray everything went off without a hitch. He'd have to take someone sensitive to foreign cultures, he realized. Charm wouldn't be enough for this one. Daisuke was right out, enthusiastic though he was. He was just too goofy sometimes. Hikari? No, no way he was taking his sister along somewhere dangerous. Yamato? Refused outright. Sora. Sora would be controlled enough to handle this delicate mission, since Yamato wasn't willing to go. (Not that Taichi blamed him.) Fumbling, Taichi dialed Sora's number from memory and tapped his foot as he waited for her to answer.

"Sora?" he said, voice a little shaky, "I need you to go on a diplomatic mission with me, to recruit a Digidestined in North Korea."

She was nodding on the other end right up until 'North Korea' came up. "What?"

"North Korea has a Digidestined. One. And if we don't invite him to join the Digidestined World Network, we could be in a lot of trouble politically. So… we're going." Taichi sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I need to take somebody with me who I can trust and your Korean's better than mine."

"This is too dangerous," she insisted. "Their government might take us hostage or something."

"We could escape into the Digital World and use that to get back to Japan," he assured her, "The South Korean Digidestined have already said they'd be willing to rescue us if they had to. But the North Korean government is the one requesting the meeting to begin with. If we don't go, we'll ruin the peace between them and Japan."

She paused for a long time, considering it. "I'll go. But only because I don't want you to get hurt."

A relieved smile bloomed across his face. "Thank you."

She made a 'mm-hm' sound before hanging up. Taichi immediately began walking home to go pack. His parents couldn't be told where he was going, he decided. They wouldn't let him go somewhere this dangerous. Even if it was to unite Digidestined everywhere, they wouldn't let him go to North Korea. Hikari wouldn't let him, either, if she knew what he was doing. He wouldn't even being doing this if he didn't have back up on hand.

Hyun-Seo, the leader of the South Korean Digidestined, had promised him that they would mount a rescue if they went twenty four hours without hearing from him. Her partner was Leomon, and her friends' Digimon included many tough, muscle bound partners who would be equally strong. They had an escape route open and waiting in the Digital World at all times, preplanned down to travel time and exact route. They had even prepared a hangout in the Digital World in case Taichi and Sora needed to lay low.

So nice to know they think this guy's trustworthy, he thought to himself, and he chuckled. Agumon gave him a look. Agumon was less than thrilled to be going. He didn't like the sound of this, and he thought it was suspicious that North Korea only had one Digidestined. That wasn't unheard of, of course – India only had one because so few Digimon attacks happened, and China started out with one at first. Still, something wasn't right. It was just so rare, it didn't make sense that it would conveniently happen in a dictatorship, where one person would so easy to control. This whole thing set off Agumon's sixth sense in a bad way. But he couldn't let Taichi go into this all alone, without backup. They had to stick together.

"Couldn't we send someone else?" Agumon asked, thinking out loud. "Or maybe take a bunch of people so we'd be safe?"

Taichi shook his head. "There is no 'safe' there, just relatively safer. It'll be better if we go, so nobody else is in danger. Besides," he added with a winning smile, "They won't mess with me, I'm too important."

His nervous laughter didn't fool either of them.


	2. Chapter 2

Taichi was getting used to dealing with officials from the government.

They asked an awful lot of questions. They wanted a copy of the email Koushiro received, they wanted a copy of South Korea's rescue plan, and they really wanted to know if they could send some armed forces alongside Tai. While Koushiro handed over the email and plans without complaint, the last request was an unfortunate no. If they were seen treating North Korea differently than other countries, that would get negotiations off on the wrong foot immediately. This wasn't a country anyone wanted to anger, so the government reluctantly agreed to not sending anyone else. Still, they were curious. Or, more accurately, worried.

"Why does their country only have one Digidestined?" the official asked, sounding genuinely suspicious. "That's only happened three times in the history of the world, in underdeveloped countries."

Taichi sighed, running his hand through his hair for the umpteenth time that day. "Sora and I suspect they might be lying. If they're only letting us meet with one, then nobody on their end can screw up negotiations. Most countries have a team of three, five, or eight kids, so that's what we're probably dealing with in truth."

"They'll probably have moved the others outside the city of Pyongyang for this, then," the man mused, and he gave Taichi a serious frown. "No one in the higher ups likes this. If we could, we would send an adult to do this. As it is, I have to ask you to make sure you understand the seriousness of this mission. Bad relations with North Korea would be disastrous. Although you and your team have improved Japan's relations with many countries, if this goes sour…"

He didn't need to finish the sentence. Taichi understood, and he nodded solemnly. "We'll do the best we can." He stood up shakily. "I better get going. Sora's waiting for me at the airport by now."

In retrospect, Taichi would barely remember the walk to the airport, the flight, or landing in South Korea. He would only remember nervous silence, from both Sora and their Digimon. In the back of his mind he was terrified, but this had to be done, so he spent most of the trip gazing out the window. Sora spent it writing emails to her family, who would only just now be learning where she had gone. The Japanese media would otherwise keep it a secret unless or until North Korea revealed it to the world. Until then, there would be media silence accompanying this trip.

Hyun-Seo met them at the South Korean airport. Her Patamon sat on her head, yawning in the early morning's light. Taichi gave them a heartfelt grin, while Sora shook Hyun-Seo's hand. The Korean girl was dressed in her school uniform; apparently she was cutting part of class to be here. After greeting them both and asking how the flight was, she handed Tai something that made his eyes widen.

"Is this a fake D-Tector?"

Hyun-Seo nodded. "Young Jae Park made it for you, and one for Sora-ssi, last night. You should keep your real ones hidden and have these where they are visible. This way, even if they take them from you, you will still be alright."

"Young-san is a genius," Taichi noted, examining the device closely. "It really looks real. Tell him we said thanks."

"We'll leave out the 'genius' part," Patamon put in, rolling his eyes. "We don't want him to get even more arrogant than he already is. His head might explode."

Sora laughed; Taichi chuckled. Hyun-Seo rolled her golden eyes at her partner, and took Taichi by the hand. "There's still an hour before your flight to Pyongyang arrives. I'll treat you to breakfast."

Breakfast was a quiet affair. The restaurant owner gave them a confused look at first, wondering what young people were doing here on a school day. A flash of their Digivices solved that problem; Hyun-Seo's team had gotten to the point where they used their Digivices like that a lot. They let the police see them and were excused from cutting class. They showed them to their parents as a silence explanation of why they were out so late. Apparently, this restaurant's owner knew enough not to ask questions once he saw it, and they were left alone.

Agumon had always been a big eater, but Patamon's appetite was truly a marvel, especially for someone who'd already had breakfast. (Hyun-Seo groaned and shook her head at him, silently wondering where he put it.) Taichi was too nervous to really eat. What he did, he didn't taste. Biyomon literally pecked at her food, as was her nervous habit. Still, it was nice to see Hyun-Seo again, and know they had some allies out here. Just knowing she would run across the border for him in a heartbeat was reassuring. With how stubborn she could be, he didn't doubt she'd do it, and that made him relax enough to get his meal down and keep it down.

"Stay safe," Hyun-Seo told them quietly as they saw their plane come in. "We'll all be praying for you."

Sora squeezed her hand lightly. "We're coming back, Hyun-Seo-chan. I promise."

At this, the other girl simply nodded, her long chocolate colored hair falling into her face. That was all they got by way of good byes, for at that moment two guards marched over to them. Their uniforms and expressionless faces sent shivers down Agumon and Biyomon's spines as they instinctively moved to protect their partners. In clipped, rough sounding Korean Tai and Sora barely understood, they asked if they were the Japanese diplomats. When Taichi nodded, they were instructed to come with the guards. Hyun-Seo gestured for them to go, and if she seemed paler than usual, Sora pretended it was just her imagination.

The guards did not touch them, or even look at them. They were unarmed, although still muscular. In their rough, emotionless voices, they asked Taichi and Sora to turn off their cellphones before getting onboard the plane. Then they wordlessly opened the door to the private jet, gesturing for them to get in. The two Japanese Chosen did so, surprised to find that no one else was on the plane except for the pilots. They had expected to meet some official or perhaps even North Korea's Chosen. That they were instead waiting until the two were inside the country before allowing them to so much as see an official meant they didn't trust them. Taichi glanced over at the listless guards, the severity of the situation hitting home.

They were not trusted. In the past, going to foreign countries, they had been welcomed. Watched, yes, but welcomed with open arms by most people. Even countries with no ties to Japan generally weren't this closed off. The most paranoid place he'd been in his short lived diplomatic career was South Africa. Even they hadn't stared him down like this. Under the gaze of the two guards, Taichi felt inclined to sit completely still, not even crossing his legs or tapping his foot until they looked away. He felt a pang of anxiety course through him. _What have we gotten ourselves into?_

Sora gave him a nervous smile. She was scared too, he realized. Neither of them knew what was going to happen. He took her hand, silently. The world didn't know they were here. Their families would only know once they were too far away to be stopped. Though the Japanese Chosen would worry, and they would be fearful, they were too far away to help if things went wrong. Their only possible hope was Hyun-Seo's team, but what if they were in school when things went wrong? What if he and Sora were killed before they could get a distress signal out? What if…

_Stop that_, he told himself. Things were going to be okay. North Korea wouldn't kill two Japanese diplomats they needed to impress, right? Surely they would be wiser than that. He and Sora were too well known. If they vanished mysteriously in North Korea, the world would know and be horrified. That would be all it would take, and North Korea couldn't afford to damage its reputation any further. Taichi had managed to, with the help of Digidestined worldwide, create a sort of general peace among the world's countries. It wasn't a flawless peace – there were still tensions and rumors of war, but wars themselves had ground to a halt. Nowadays, Japan was seen as a shining star for the peace it had created. No one would mess with the creators of that peace. It would be the worst political decision ever made, he reassured himself.

So why wouldn't his heart stop racing?

They landed in Pyongyang, a large and sprawling city if there ever was one. Taichi noted right away that, looking out the window, he didn't see hardly any cars traveling around, and he saw few people walking about. Of course, he chided himself, it was early morning. Maybe no one was awake yet. After all, North Korea had insisted they be here very early in the morning. He was just being paranoid. He gave Agumon what he hoped was a reassuring smile as they were ordered to stand. The door opened, and they descended down the stairs to find government officials, guards and several reporters waiting for them.

The North Korean reporters took pictures and then stood back, not asking questions. Their eyes, he noted, were trained mostly on Agumon and Biyomon. Digimon were still rare here, if North Korea's Chosen had just been activated. Oddly enough, the officials didn't spare the Digimon a glance. Taichi and Sora found themselves shaking hands, bowing and trying to remember the names of people who were going to be their 'escort' around Pyongyang. There were about a dozen armed guards, which was worrying, but the other North Koreans assured them it was just a security precaution. After all, the Japanese Chosen were famous, and that put them in danger.

Taichi didn't buy it, but nodded and said thanks just the same. Sora gave the press a small smile and a wave as they were escorted off. A few cameras flashed. After that, the silence was filled by one particularly enthusiastic sounding official explaining that they would meet with the Chosen of North Korea as soon as they could. First they would be shown where they would be staying and allowed to unpack. As they walked to the bus they would be taking, Taichi noted a disturbing lack of people. Not one person was one the street that he could see. This held true for the entire ride to their hotel.

Except it wasn't a hotel. It was an apartment building that had been remade into a more permanent and luxurious residence. The two Japanese Chosen exchanged looks. This was not what they had expected. There was a chandelier in the lobby, thick, plush red carpet everywhere and intricate wallpaper. The whole place smelled of fresh flowers. Their rooms were huge, with a living room, bedroom, bathroom and small kitchen area each. Both Tai and Sora were unable to keep from gaping at what they were being presented with. Their wide eyes and slack jaws apparently pleased the government officials immensely, as they smiled as they bowed out of the rooms. Tai found himself unable to move for a long moment.

They had said this was where the North Korean Chosen lived. Was this what his life was like, every day spent in this kind of fantastic luxury? The bed was huge, the bathroom was pristine and he _knew_ this wasn't how the rest of the population lived. Everyone else existed on the brink of death, starving in their villages where everything was tightly controlled, and yet North Korea's special few got this. This was how some of them lived all the time, he realized, running a hand over the silk bedspread, while their fellow people starved.

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Agumon was staring at him, worried. Tai tried not to let the sick feeling in his stomach show on his face. He was a diplomat. He was supposed to be able to handle this. This wasn't about the luxury or the starving people, he told himself. Negotiations weren't about flipping the country upside down and solving all their problems. He was supposed to make peace with North Korea's Digidestined. That was it. That everything in this place cost a fortune wasn't his concern. The porcelain plates in the kitchen area, fully stocked fridge, and wide screen TV were attempts to distract him from why he was here. They were basically short term bribes.

Whatever. Taichi Yagami was not so easily bought, and neither was Sora, who met him outside with a determined look on her face. Being the Chosen of Love, the revelation this luxury was reserved for a few would have hit her hard, he realized later. It was like a blow to her heart. The attempt to bribe the two with luxury and the easy life only served make their resolve stronger as they made their way back towards the lobby. It was time to meet the Digidestined of North Korea, the man who was bought off by this. They had said he was eighteen. They had said he was well taken care of. Tai and Sora froze mid step when they saw him.

They had lied.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: College is why I haven't updated. I'm sorry. Also, I was forced to change the title due to a dispute with another user who had a panic attack over someone using the same title as them. If you were reading this under it's former 'Building A Mystery' title, you may have to update your favorite/alerts list. Sorry!

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"Hello, Yagami-seonsaeng, Takenouchi-seonsaeng. I am Ko Hyo, the Digidestined of North Korea."

It was surreal, Taichi thought, to hear this kid speak. The formal, lengthy honorifics and solemn, stoic tone made him feel like the voice shouldn't belong to the speaker. The words would've made sense coming from an adult, but, as he and Sora realized quickly, Hyo was not an adult. He was, at most, ten or eleven, and he was small for his age. His bowl cut black hair was dull and thin, with a brittle look to it. His sunken in eyes were a shade of dark gray that was a lot like the Chinese Digidestined. But while their eyes were bright and alert, his were half closed and dim. His face was gaunt, and he was so thin he was swimming in his clothes. His legs shook slightly, as if it took a lot of effort to stand.

Hyo met Taichi's gaze steadily. The blankness in his eyes made the Japanese boy shudder as he continued, "These are my partners, ToyAgumon, SnowAgumon, BlackAgumon, and ShadowToyAgumon."

Biyomon reached forward to shake ToyAgumon's claw. "It's very nice to meet all of you. My name is Biyomon."

Agumon stepped forward uneasily, looking at the four with confusion in his eyes. "Uh, I'm Agumon, but I guess you already know that since we're practically cousins."

Taichi's mind was a sea of confusion. Four partners? It wasn't unheard of for people to have two, or for one Digimon to have two Digidestined. He'd seen that. But either North Korea's kid was a miracle or these weren't all his. They knew Taichi and Sora would see something wrong with this picture, though, so if three of these weren't his partners, why were they here when they could've been hidden? He eyed the four warily, noting how ToyAgumon took Hyo's hand in his and looked at him with concern. Was that Digimon really Hyo's? Something wasn't right here. They'd known that much going into this. But he hadn't expected this.

Sora leaned down to shake the hands of each Digimon, and Taichi did so as well before taking Hyo's. The Korean boy's hands were cold, he noted, and the palm was skinned and cracked. His eyes met the boy's, and at that moment he realized Hyo wasn't the evil North Korean he'd pictured in his head. The kid was just that, a kid, and even though Taichi wasn't fond of where he was from, that didn't mean this whole thing had to be formal. He offered the boy a warm, genuine smile, receiving a small one in return. It was a start, at least, and for a second there was a flicker of awareness in the small boy's eyes that hadn't been there before.

One of the many guards in the building escorted them to the dining room, where they sat in what might have been a second lobby, once, before it had been remodeled. Taichi and Sora instinctively helped Hyo's digimon into their chairs, partly because they did so with their own digimon and partly because Hyo didn't look like he could lift them. He was too thin, and although he was trying to walk fast enough to keep up with them and speak firmly, it was clear he wasn't quite right.

It occurred to Tai that most North Korean children were malnourished if not severely malnourished, with less than half the population eating enough to maintain a healthy body weight. Was that how they'd gotten Hyo, he wondered to himself as they sat in silence, watching each other. Had they bribed him with food, giving him the options of coming here or starving otherwise? Taichi felt sick at the thought, thinking of the food so readily available in South Korea. It struck him that he didn't really want to be here, watching Hyo sway in his seat, eyes dull and lifeless. He suddenly wanted to be home, with his family, watching his mother make dinner in their kitchen where there was _always_ food.

Hyo's ToyAgumon climbed into his lap and nuzzled him. Hyo took a second to even realize his digimon was there. Slowly, his arms curled around his partner, and when he peeked over ToyAgumon's head he looked for all the world like a child holding a giant toy. Taichi wondered to himself how old Hyo really was, but there was no way of knowing. The guards in the room wouldn't let him tell the truth to them, not even if he was coherent enough to do so.

"Which of your digimon is oldest?" Taichi asked on a whim. "In Japan, at least, not all of them met their partners right away. So, who's oldest in your group?"

"I am," ToyAgumon said immediately, "And ShadowToyAgumon is the youngest. Other than that, we don't know. We got here mostly at the same time, but time flows differently in the Digital World, so it's hard to say by human standards..."

Biyomon nodded sympathetically. "It's hard getting used to human measures of time. My friend Tentomon wears a watch to help with that."

"We tried that, but it keeps getting broken since _someone_ is a klutz," ShadowToyAgumon said, looking meaningfully at ToyAgumon, who glared back.

Sora smiled warmly at Hyo as she asked, "How long have you had your partners? I'm sure you know about us since we were on the news, but I feel we barely know you."

Hyo glanced at the guards, a flicker of fear in his eyes. "Uh, I've known them a year, Takenouchi-seonsaeng."

"You don't have to be so formal," Agumon informed him brightly. "We're diplomats, but we're not snobby or anything. You can call us whatever you like."

Another glance at the guards before speaking. "I see. Thank you, Agumon-seonsaeng."

Agumon gave Taichi a look that said 'I tried'. Taichi gave him one that replied 'I know'. In silence, they waited as the smell of fresh food wafted towards them. Korean courtesy was to prepare a meal for travelers, and Japan's rule of manners was to never refuse prepared food. In fairness, North Korea had no way of knowing when their guests last ate. They were attempting to be polite. Of course, they also knew it was yet another moment to bribe the diplomats as best as they could. Taichi eyed the North Korean Digidestined, wondering what the boy ate.

A year was a lie, one everybody at the table saw through. If he'd known them a year, he'd have been in the government's custody for that long because that's just how this country was. If he'd been well fed for a year – and any sane country did everything they could to feed their Chosen – he wouldn't look like this. He would probably still be underweight, but not to this degree. He was listless, taking several seconds to respond to questions and speaking slowly, as if through a haze. They were feeding him, that much was clear, because otherwise he wouldn't be living in a luxurious place like this. North Korea was taking care of their Digidestined.

But he hadn't been in their care for a year. It was, like his age, the minimum required to get membership in the Digimon World Alliance. (The age limit had been Taichi's idea, to help keep out the elementary aged children who were Digidestined.) In reality, Hyo had been here for less than a year, maybe only a month or two at the most. Taichi tried to picture what the boy had been through, being taken from his home after receiving a digital monster (or four) and suddenly being fed real food so long as he did what the government said.

The sick feeling in his stomach returned full force. Food shouldn't be used as a weapon like that, Taichi thought, and even though the dishes they were presented with were freshly made and delicious, he ate automatically, out of courtesy alone. The whole time, he felt a growing pit of hatred in his heart for this country, and something akin to righteous indignation of behalf of Hyo. This was no way to live, not for a child who had no choice. Noting the eager way the North Korean boy ate and the way ToyAgumon hissed for him to slow down, casting wary looks Taichi and Sora's way, Taichi cringed.

They weren't meant to know that Ko Hyo had come here on threat of starvation. They weren't meant to know life here was every bit as bad as they'd been told. The food, the rooms, this whole building was supposed to convince them North Korea was great and wonderful and should be treated extra nicely in negotiations. All it did was piss off the Japanese Digidestined, with Tai silently fuming and Sora looking utterly ill, unable to really eat anything. They had a hard time restraining themselves, keeping from screaming their outrage and disgust. But Taichi knew that this wasn't a place where screaming would trigger a reaction. People here would smile and reassure him that he was mistaken as they repeated their old lies.

"We will show you around the city," one official, named Ri Pae stated loudly, interrupting the awkward silence that filled the room. "But first we must _talk_ to Hyo-ssi."

There was something about the way that he said 'talk' that made the already ashen boy grow even paler. A flicker of terror crossed his face before he glanced at Sora and Tai and became listless again. Tai felt his stomach twist, but it was Sora who objected out loud. Before he could stop her, she was on her feet, eyes narrowed dangerously. The look she sent that particular official was so cold it could have frozen fire.

"We're never going to get to know him if you drag him away from us every three seconds," she snapped. "Why don't you just leave the poor kid alone?"

The tension in the room went up like a rocket. Hyo pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapped his arms around them and shut his eyes tightly, as if bracing for an impact. SnowAgumon was saying something about staying calm to his partner, who didn't so much as twitch. On the opposite end of the table, Agumon was tugging on Tai's sleeve and whispering something. Taichi felt his old boldness flare up as he stood, leveling a firm look at the assembled guards and officials who were there to monitor them.

"What Sora-ssi _means_," he said quickly, "Is that most countries trust their Digidestined enough to let them talk to us alone. Assuming he _is_ your Digidestined."

At this, Ri Pae's face went a magnificent shade of scarlet. "What exactly are you implying, Ambassador Yagami?"

"That if he was really your Digidestined, and you really wanted to ensure North Korea's entry, you'd play by the same rules everyone else does. We're not going to let you coach Hyo on what to do and say. No one gets to do that." He folded his arms, drawing himself up to full height even as his heart hammered in his chest. "If you're going to break entry rules before you're even in, consider North Korea rejected."

There was a moment in which Taichi's entire life flashed before his eyes. Ambassador Yagami Mysteriously Vanishes, say North Korean officials. Japan Suspects Foul Play. For a second he pictured Hikari sobbing hysterically, Yamato crying and punching walls and cussing them out for being so stupid. He pictured Hyun-Seo's horror that she couldn't save them. A glance at Sora showed that she was picturing roughly the same things. Everyone knew that negotiating here was tricky, and they had probably just signed their own death warrants. He slipped his hand over hers, silently.

Then Ri Pae gave them a fake, rather disturbing grin. "But of course. We will leave you, and you can all talk, okay?' He looked over at the silent, motionless Korean boy. "I trust Ko Hyo-ssi will be good." The words 'or else' hung in the air like a knife ready to strike, and almost imperceptibly, Hyo nodded.

And then, when all the officials and guards were gone, he began to cry.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes: I apologize for the lack of updates, but they'll be regular from now on. I'm very sorry, but I've sort of regained my love for this fandom lately, so don't worry.

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The crying was, Taichi thought to himself, more like whimpering than anything else.

He gingerly reached out to touch the boy's shoulder. Hyo flinched, and Taichi found himself staring down a four Agumon glare. He bit his lip, thinking. This wasn't a diplomat's area of expertise, because he wasn't talking to a diplomat. North Korea may have given that title to him, but Hyo was just a kid. Cautiously, slowly, Taichi reached out again, placing his hand over the boy's own. The skin was icy and rough to the touch. Tai knelt down beside him so that they would be on eye level. He could see faint scars on the boy's neck that had been partially concealed by make up, and he thought to himself that he could feel the bones in Hyo's hand far too well. Hyo's body shook with the force of his breakdown.

"It's okay," Taichi said softly, in his gentlest tone of voice. "We aren't going to hurt you. We're not going to get you into trouble either, okay? We're just here to talk."

Sora moved closer, hesitantly. "We're here to help you, Hyo."

At this, he shook his head vigorously. When he spoke next, his voice wasn't the epitome of calm and listlessness like it had been. Now it was a scared, hopeless child's voice, one that brought tears to Sora's eyes. "You won't help me. Everyone says they will, they always do. First ToyAgumon said he'd take care of me, and he couldn't. Pae-ssi says he'll feed me, but he doesn't, because I'm so _stupid_ and I keep making _mistakes_ and…" he trailed off, taking a big gulp of air. "And now everybody else is gone and I'm all alone and if I mess this up they're going to _kill_ me and I can't trust anyone anymore and I want to go home!" Here, he dissolved into complete incoherency.

"Sssh," ToyAgumon warned, eyes going wide. He cast a terrified glance towards the door. "You know they're just outside the door. If they hear you-"

"I don't care anymore! I _want_ them to kill me! I'm so sick of this…" and he buried his head in his hands, shaking his head and whimpering something unintelligible to himself.

As he sat there, he began to rock himself slightly, pulling his knees up to his chest. Wrapping his arms around his knees, he buried his head in them and sobbed. He looked like a mental patient, Taichi thought, though to his horror he noted he'd never seen a thorough breakdown in someone so young. Hyo's crying brought his digimon around him, a circle of protective and heartbroken monsters. There was a kind of hopelessness in their eyes. They had seen this before. This was how it had always been for them. There were used to it, and so all they could do was stand by and watch as their human broke down. Rough claws reached out to stroke the boy's shoulder, soft murmurs of reassurance in the same odd dialect of Korean Hyo that lapsed into, and quiet sadness was all they could offer him. Taichi was struck by the sudden thought that they were all trapped here. This was all Hyo knew or would ever know.

The boy stopped sobbing and listlessly stared at the floor, eyes dim and dead inside. Sora stood rooted to the spot, eyes taking in his every movement. She felt the urge to cry herself, though it wouldn't help the situation any. But it was the conviction and desperation with which he admitted to desiring death that made her shiver. More accurately, it made her blood run hot with righteous fury. He was broken in a way no one ever should be. His eyes were listless, hollow, like looking at a dead man, and he held no hope for the future within him. His small, bony frame shook with each intake of breath. He turned to look Taichi in the eyes and with his hair messed up and in his face, he somehow looked faintly like Hikari. The thought of his little sister in such a state made the Japanese man shudder.

"You're just here so they don't blow you up." Hyo said it like it was a fact, one he'd accepted long ago. There was no anger to the statement, no resentment, no disdain. Hyo didn't have it in him to be angry at anyone or anything anymore. His voice was steady now, but there was something about that that was even worse than a breakdown. "You don't care about me. No one does. If I died tomorrow they'd replace me like a broken washing machine and no one in the world would know or care. You would talk to the replacement like nothing ever happened. And you wouldn't ask what happened to me because you know what would happen if you did. Nobody cares about anything but themselves, in the end." He sounded resigned and disturbingly distant, as if he weren't all there. His eyes were fixed unseeingly on the ceiling.

Sora's russet eyes narrowed. "That's not true! We're here so we can help you and the other Digidestined of North Korea. Everyone's been speculating about your country's Digidestined for years, but we never had any way to know what was happening."

"Liar," Hyo said coldly. The word carried a ton of toxic, heartfelt cynicism; Sora took a step back from him, her eyes wide. "Jong-ssi got out. She made it through the Digital World, over to South Korea. She told everybody about what's been happening. I know she did. You're just here to keep yourselves from being blown up. You don't care. I don't blame you," he added softly. "It's too hopeless to care anymore about North Koreans."

Taichi was about to respond when Sora cut him off, her tone low and soft. "Jong Cho?" All the Korean digimon turned to stare at her. "Jong Cho, fourteen years old, eyes are dark purple?"

Ko Hyo's eyes went wide in shock. There was a broken horror in them as he asked, "She… she didn't mention us, did she?"

And he curled into his little ball again, but he didn't cry. He stared unseeingly at the floor and went still as a statue. His digimon murmured things to him that he did not respond to, which was just as well since the four of them seemed to be on the verge of their own breakdown. Specifically, ShadowToyAgumon was staring at Sora like a deer caught in headlights, his mouth open in shock. Digimon didn't need to breathe, but gasping like that was the universe sign of something not being right. The small creature stepped back as if Sora were a monster ready to strike, and then, slowly, with increasing panic, he began to shake his head and whisper 'no'. That whisper became a mantra as he kept backing up, into the table where he collapsed in shock. His claws were shaking. He turned to Sora suddenly as if having a revelation.

"She's on the South Korean team, isn't she? She's out there living a perfect life while we're all stuck here being starved and driven mad and she… she…" The digimon seemed to beyond words, hurt and angry all at once. "She promised she'd save us. Instead she saved herself and she didn't even take her partner, she just turned and _ran_."

All anger drained out of him as the toy digimon slumped to the ground, looking defeated. Biyomon tentatively placed her wing on his clawed hand; when he did not withdraw from the contact, she squeezed it gently. He looked at her with wide eyes, searching for something in the bird digimon's blue ones. She hadn't known, he realized. None of them had known that Jong Cho was who she was – they hadn't meant to drop a bombshell on a room. Cho had never let on that she had a partner left behind in North Korea. Somehow that cut like a knife, deeper than it would if the Japanese just hadn't cared. She had forgotten him, forgotten all of them, and moved on with her life. Of course, her Digivice had gone missing, but they hadn't thought, had never dared to think she'd abandoned them.

Taichi reached out and placed both hands on Hyo's shoulders. "Hyo? Are you okay? Are you… can you please just say something? Hyo?" He was really starting to get freaked out by the North Korean child.

SnowAgumon stood on his tiptoes to try to look Hyo in the eyes. "Partner?" he whispered, softly and gently. "Please, please don't do this again. Remember, you said you weren't going to do this anymore, we agreed it wasn't healthy. Please, Hyo, you're scaring me. Hyo…"

The North Korean boy closed his eyes. "I know they'll probably kill me when they see how badly I ruined this meeting. And I want them to kill me. I'm so _tired_. But if I die then someone else gets put into this same exact position." He hung his head. "We'll just… we'll just have to let Jong Cho go. Have to ignore what she's done. When we walk out of here we'll have to smile and talk like nothing's happened because I can't put anyone else through my life." He wiped his eyes, standing. His usual stoic expression was firmly in place. Hyo eyed Sora and Taichi warily. "You can't talk about either. This never happened. Because, you see, if it had it'd make everything complicated and they might go after Cho and try to kill her. It would put my entry into the Digimon World Alliance into question. So nobody ever mentioned Jong and we didn't talk about anything. I cried because I was nervous. That's all."

With that, he turned and walked towards the door. His digimon fell into formation around him, SnowAgumon in front, ToyAgumon and ShadowToyAgumon on either side of him and BlackAgumon behind him. His face was a mask of stoicism and indifference. Despite his frail physical appearance, his determination and emotional control were strong, and he looked as if nothing had happened. It would have been impressive under other circumstances, but now it indicated what a sick twisted country he was living in. This, Taichi thought with a growing sense of horror, was Hyo's life. He broke down, he had breaks from reality, and then he had to pull himself together abruptly, never letting the real gravity of the situation show to anyone save for his digimon. He had learned that people like Jong could get away with horrifying things and that was just how life was. Jong Cho had ripped out the hearts of what remained of North Korea's Digidestined, had betrayed them all, especially her former partner, but she couldn't be punished because Hyo didn't want her killed, in spite of it all. Why, they'd never know. If ever there was a valid moment to want revenge… But he didn't seem to have it in him to feel those kinds of emotions anymore.

"The government insists on taking you to see all the historical sites and landmarks." Hyo's voice was remarkably devoid of emotion. "It's standard treatment for all visiting diplomats. I hope you don't mind, Yagami-seonsaeng and Takenouchi-seonsaeng." Less than a minute ago he'd found out that his best friend had stabbed them all in the back and never looked back. Now he sounded like he was talking about the weather.

Taichi didn't know what was more horrifying: Ko Hyo or the people who'd done this to him.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: Since someone asked, let me say this. This fic was inspired by reading some of the things the creators of Digimon have said in interviews, specifically the statement that there are Digidestined in every country. And then Ko Hyo came to me as sort of the male version of Shoutan Himei from Sailor Nothing – someone who's been forced into this position and is three seconds away from a suicidal breakdown at any given moment.

And I promise we'll be back into the main plot after this introspective chapter is done. Never fear, my readers.

* * *

Hyo thought. He felt. He dreamt.

He thought about the things he'd seen, the horrors that had become commonplace to him a long time ago. He thought about how death was the best thing that could happen to a person in North Korea, and he thought about how a bullet seemed infinitely kinder than starving to death. He thought about the things he'd heard, the way people described the end to him, trying to scare him. And he knew that he could shut it all out entirely and so the threats meant nothing to him, nothing at all. Threats to himself didn't scare him. He didn't value himself, the piece of shit skinny boy who could barely read. He didn't hate himself, but he didn't see much good in himself either.

He had feelings, however. He had learned to bury them under an empty mask. He had learned to break down only at night, sobbing into his pillow because if he cried anywhere else punishment would be swift and vicious. He had learned that his life meant nothing. But he still had a family, and he still loved them very much, with all his heart. They had killed his mother when she tried to protect him. Hyo had gone quietly after that, clutching a Digivice tightly in each of his hands, SnowAgumon and BlackAgumon trailing behind him. His sister Sun Hi had sobbed hysterically, their father holding her back with a heavy heart as his eldest child was taken away. The government was wise enough to compensate them with food and money, to help encourage any other families with Digidestined to come forward.

Hyo knew they would barely be surviving or possibly be dead without what the government was giving them for his cooperation. That was why he stayed here, trapped in this luxurious and exquisite prison better than any five star hotel while all around him people were starving in the streets. He'd have hated himself if not for the fact that Sun Hi and their father were okay, better than okay, actually gaining some weight. He saw them once since he'd been taken away, when he fought off a rampaging Meramon that was running around their home village. They were both so healthy looking now. He was a selfish monster to be complaining about his lot in life when he had it so easy; he saw the skeletal people who lay dying in the streets and knew he had made the right choice. What was there to complain about? They were both going to be alright now.

But the people here, the guards and the 'teachers' and all the officials… They did things to him. They yelled, degraded, ranted, beat, insulted, slapped, and threatened him until every ounce of pride and will power was gone from him. It had been forever since he'd smiled, forever since he'd joked or ran or played. He was plagued with nightmares of the work camps they'd taken him to, his fate if he failed or made too many mistakes. His worst fear was that without his income his family would starve to death, but there were plenty of other places from which nightmares could spring. They made him do things he would never forget, never be able to wipe his hands clean of, and already he could feel a part of him dying. A conscience, that part of him that had once objected to things, was gone. His will had been snuffed out like a candle. Now they were intent on breaking his mind, or so it seemed.

Hyo and his digimon had killed people to demonstrate the danger of a Digidestined. It was part of yet another highly publicized scare tactic to get people to turn in the North Korean Digidestined. Luckily they'd never realized that Sun Hi was one of them. They'd figured out in a matter of days that two Digivices meant Hyo was protecting someone, but they didn't care so long as all the digimon were theirs. Small miracles, SnowAgumon had told him with a sigh of relief, it's a small miracle. If BlackAgumon had felt any anger or resentment at being taken away from his partner he never showed it. He wanted Sun Hi safe just like the rest of them did. Hyo thought that was probably the only reason that the black dinosaur had agreed to what they'd been ordered to do. SnowAgumon had refused and was gone for a few days, coming back beaten and bloody with tears in his eyes.

"It's better to give up," Hyo had advised him, staring up at the ceiling. He dreamt, sometimes while he was awake. He drifted into himself where it was silent and devoid of feeling. Only an occasional sound or fleeting image would pierce the blackness, then it would be gone and he would lay there for as long as he was permitted. Time stopped in the black void where all was peaceful and there wasn't any pain. There wasn't any happiness or joy to his dream world. Ko Hyo did not know what happiness was, hadn't ever felt it. Before coming here it had been desperation and starvation, hunger pains and restless nights. Here it was nightmares and bloodshed. The closest thing to a happy place his mind could come up with was absolute nothingness without any external interference or input.

When he awoke from his day-sleeping he found often that his digimon were staring at him in terror or trying to wake him. Even before ShadowToyAgumon and ToyAgumon had begun living with him he never could make his two closest friends understand. He tried to explain that it made life bearable and felt as natural as sleeping. He tried to convince them it was okay. But it scared them regardless. SnowAgumon said it wasn't healthy and was in fact a sign of mental illness. Hyo couldn't help but wonder if he had enough of a mind left to qualify as mentally ill in the first place, a thought he didn't voice to his partner. When the other two Digidestined were turned in they weren't in much better shape than he was. Or at least, as far as he knew they weren't. Jong Cho's constant escape attempts meant she was separated from all of them very early on, taken who knows where to be re-educated. But each time she came back, she was at it again.

She had always made Hyo on edge and nervous. She had large purple eyes, the soft kind of purple one might find in a flower's petals. Her dark brown hair was tied into a single braid and secured with string so that she would only have to wash it once in a blue moon. Cho was forever looking this way or that, eyes forever lively even before they'd begun feeding her, her head always swiveling and turning to look at something. Her hands were never still, clutching at her braid like a security blanket or rearranging whatever was nearby. There was something wrong with her. Hyo had known it long before the rest of them had, but he hadn't ever thought she would betray them. He thought she was going stir crazy in their prison, that one day she'd get herself killed running away in some crazy attempt to escape. He felt something was off deep inside her, and out of pity tried to teach her to find the quiet place inside her like he had. It hadn't worked.

Still, for all of her constant anxiety she had managed it. A successful escape from North Korea without her Digivice. How she'd done it was anyone's guess at this point. All Hyo knew was that he'd thought he knew what she'd do next. Forever chatting and whispering, he could easily envision her going for help. She would be her bird-like, never still self but with newfound hope in the outside world, where people were truly free. None of them knew much about freedom outside of an abstract idea. It meant doing what you wanted, going where you wanted, at all times. He could scarcely imagine such a life. The choices seemed overwhelmingly numerous and plentiful. But he knew what he'd have done if he got out before she had. He'd have tried to get help from the South Korean Digidestined. They would be sure to help, he just knew it. He'd met Hua Hyun-Seo once, in a purely diplomatic meeting designed to show the world that the North Korean Digidestined was a refined diplomat capable of interacting civilly with other diplomats.

Hyun-Seo had called him Hyo without any honorifics, wrapped an arm around his waist and smiled brightly at him, pretending for all she was worth to be interested in the dull historical sights she was shown. Her eyes were golden and her hair was blue-black. She had a voice that reminded him of his mother and her head sleeping pressed onto his chest was the closest thing to real affection he'd had in a very long time. She left with promises to invite him to her country as soon as she had a break from school, and he was left feeling warm and content, yet utterly confused. If Cho had escaped then surely this wonderful, bold and outgoing girl would have made an effort to save him. He had come to the conclusion that Cho must've died in the process of escaping and no one had told him. That didn't make sense, but it made even less sense to think that Hua-seonsaeng ("Hyun-Seo!" she'd insisted, rolling her eyes in affectionate exasperation) would just leave him in this nightmarish place.

The question now became whether or not he wanted to be rescued, knowing that his family might die if he was. Could he live with that guilt haunting him for all his life? The answer was no, no he couldn't, he loved them too much. He loved them enough to miss all their annoying habits. He missed his uncle who had no concept of an indoor voice, his little sister with her ability to find something to smile about even in the worst conditions, and his father. Oh, Hyo knew his father was mentally ill. He zoned out and went into his little void too. But now that he had food on the table maybe he wouldn't have to do that anymore. Maybe he'd be okay. Hyo loved him too much to take away the only good thing that had happened to their family in years. He loved all of them too much to act in self-preservation. Who could hurt those closest to them just to get themselves ahead in the world?

Well, besides Jong Cho.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Despite the ending line, this is not the end chapter. Also, I was planning to have more build up to this particular scene, but it was getting too long and just would've dragged the angst of Hyo's life on for way too long. So here it is, the whole scene I based this fic on, the reason I wrote it, and proof that my mind is a dark place to be.

* * *

ToyAgumon's partner had always been a mystery to Hyo.

The digimon had been hauled in, looking run down and exhausted, by a police officer after the digimon was spotted sneaking around the slums. No one could identify who his partner was since he wore the Digivice himself and refused to answer. He was beaten, he was burned, and he was verbally abused to the greatest extent imaginable, but he would never say who it was. He stood firm in his silence, earning Hyo's respect in a matter of days. There was something astounding about anyone able to keep their morals and standards in tact in North Korea. That the small, plastic digimon would dare to keep this secret was incredible. It was much like how they'd questioned Hyo, except that he'd lied and said that the second digivice belonged to a girl who had very recently died. ToyAgumon didn't lie, he just shut his mouth and kept it shut, plastic eyes glinting with an inner fire that none of the other digimon possessed. He may have been the smallest out of them, but he was by and far the toughest, the strongest, the most heroic out of all of them. Hyo stood in awe of him. Such things were beyond his capacity now.

His willpower was nonexistent, his mind broken, his spirit shattered. Hyo was aware from his first trip into nothingness that he was very much a failure at being a hero. He was nothing more than a tool of North Korea. This was a position he would simply have to force himself to deal with. He had no other options, no hope of fighting the government successfully and he had a family to think about. This was his life. It was painful, degrading, violent, disgusting even, but it was how it was. Hyo didn't fight it. ToyAgumon did, with everything that was in him. He fought the system, refused to tell anyone his partner's name or even their gender, and he could take anything they dished out. Somehow this had inspired what Hyo thought of as his own last stand, his refusal to weasel the information out of ToyAgumon. With all the cameras and guards in their life it had been easiest to bluntly tell the digimon never, ever to tell Hyo who his partner was. That had earned him swift and painful punishment, but all the pain in the world didn't change the fact that this unknown Digidestined was just a kid who needed to be kept safe. This was the closest thing to a heroic act he'd ever managed.

Taichi told him that there would be a fifth. Digidestined came in teams of eight, five, or three. The only exception was the Digidestined of Hawaii, but that was due to geographical isolation. Everybody else came in bundles, in teams. There was another person on the way. While a country only needed one Digidestined to get membership into the Digimon World Alliance, they would need at least two if they wanted to have full membership benefits. Hyo dreaded the day they found the fifth child. The fourth one was, according to ToyAgumon, never going to be caught. Hyo trusted the validity of that statement based on the fact that it hadn't yet happened and that alone was incredibly impressive given the country they were in. He knew that his sister was safe because his lie meant that the government didn't think the second Digidestined was alive. Jong Cho had decided that she only cared for herself and no one else, which meant she was fine. In spite of Taichi and Sora's rage over what the girl had done, Hyo couldn't honestly say how he felt. Sick was the best word he could come up with. He was sick of bad people getting away with these things. He was sick of everyone hurting him, of everyone thinking only of their selves, and he was so tired of things going wrong. But he wasn't surprised. He wasn't even all that hurt by it. Everyone in North Korea looked out for themselves. Everyone else was disposable.

"I miss my partner," ToyAgumon whispered to Hyo the first night Taichi and Sora stayed over. Hyo insisted on having them all in the same room, although he knew that if the guards wanted to take them away it wouldn't help any. Still, he was a child and he liked being able to have someone with him. It reminded him of home. "I miss that stupid human a lot. But I wouldn't want another human to have to endure this nightmare."

"Being alive here is a nightmare. The only way that things could get better is if everybody were dead," Hyo replied flatly. He stared up at the ceiling, at the cameras trained on him. He didn't care if the guards were listening. "Maybe the fifth child will die before they get their Digivice. Then they wouldn't have to put up with being alive or with living our life."

"Hyo..." SnowAgumon muttered. "Please don't talk like that. It makes me worry you'll kill yourself."

Hyo didn't respond. His eyes had gone blank and he was off in his little world again. SnowAgumon sighed and climbed into bed beside him, wrapping his arms around him tightly. His human didn't so much as blink. He was in his world of darkness and waking dreams again. But something had clicked in his head, and his mind was racing. Somewhere in that broken hearted boy something was brewing, though no one could see it on the outside. For nearly an hour, he lay motionless in his bed, breathing slow and steady as if he were sleeping. He was anything but, however, as his eyes suddenly refocused and glinted dangerously in the moonlight. Hyo sat up in bed rather abruptly. Without bothering to disguise his actions, he picked the lock on his door to open it, his digimon nervously gathering behind him. He didn't notice or seem to care about the way the camera zoomed in or the startled looks on his digimon's faces. Without so much as glancing around the hall for guards, he pushed the door open and began walking briskly down the hall, fists clenched tightly and eyes steady.

"Hyo? Ko Hyo, what are you doing?" SnowAgumon pleaded, eyes going wide at the oddly tranquil expression on his partner's face. "Hyo, answer me. You're scaring me again. Hyo..."

The human handed him the lock pick, made from a small piece of metal he'd found on the ground one day. Quickly, he whispered, "You go to Taichi and Sora. Take them to the second floor and get them into the Digital World. Stay there. Don't come back, not for anything."

"What?! You can't be-"

"Get out of here. While you can. You three are with me. Let's go." He made his way down the hall as the first guards appeared, looking at him with their typical lack of emotion. Hyo stared serenely at them. "I know you won't shoot me. You know what your higher ups would do if you if you did. Now, you have two options. You can explain to them why you angered the only living Digidestined left in this country and destroyed all chances of negotiations with Japan, or you can step aside and open the door."

The digimon and the guards stared at him like deer caught in headlights. His voice was firm and commanding, cool despite the guns pointed at him. His gaze was steady, his expression beyond calm. He looked at utter peace with the world, and there was something so inherently wrong in that that it put everyone on edge. Still, the guards backed off to let him pass by looking for all the world as if it were just an ordinary day. He made his way to the building's nearest exit without so much as looking around for the guards and officials who practically swarmed here. His digimon shifted uneasily, asked questions he didn't answer, and fell into formation once they were outside. The night air was unfamiliar to them, a privledge they'd never been allowed. Under other circumstances it might have been refreshing or even a treat, but right now something was very wrong. Hyo turned to them with the strangest expression they'd ever seen on his face. He seemed gentle, serene, as if he'd had a grand revelation, and that wasn't him at all. The three digimon exchanged worried looks as he reached for the digivices he kept on him. He fiddled with them for a bit before managing to remember how to get them to digivolve. It took willpower and a reason for them to be there. Apparently those were both in play, for soon they found themselves transformed into Guardromon, Flarerizamon, and BlackGreymon.

Hyo led them on foot forward for a while, until they were in the center of the circle of buildings all around them. Here they could see huge building after huge building that housed the fortunate few, that upper one percent that had life ridiculously easy while everyone around them starved, withered and died. The sight used to make him sick. Now he turned to his digimon with a small smile, spreading his arms wide and gesturing to the world itself. His voice was utterly content as he spoke, and they all felt their blood run cold as he rambled on. He seemed so enlightened in this moment, the street lights making his pale skin look washed out, his gray eyes empty. The small speech couldn't have lasted more than a minute, a minute and a half at the most. Hyo spoke with utmost sincerity.

"The world is filled with the dead and dying. Every second alive is a hell for these people, for everyone from the common man to the higher ups. Their lives are spent being hurt, hurting others, starving and waiting for it all to end. Look at us, their supposed heroes. We kill and maim people the government tells us to, but who have we saved? Who have we helped? The country is just as decaying and rotten as it was before we arrived. Today, we're changing that. We can't make their lives better, couldn't possibly salvage this hell at this point. There's no hope for North Korea. There's too much hate and darkness here, too many corrupt and wicked people. For so long I put up with this because of my family, because of their wellbeing, but so long as they live in this country they will never be able to be truly happy or thrive."

"So what are we going to do, then?" BlackGreymon asked uncertainly. "Hyo, what the heck are we doing?"

"We're doing what we should've done a long time ago. We're going to kill everyone. Absolutely everyone. No one should live like this. This can't even be called living. Once you're born here, every waking second is a nightmare, so... It's better that no one live here. We're sending everyone to Heaven in death so they won't have to live in Hell." Hyo's digivices glowed, then turned strangely dark and seemed to suck in all light. He didn't notice this, nor did he notice the way the digimon's eyes were growing dim and listless as if they weren't all there. "Burn everything. Burn it to the ground."

And they did.


	7. Chapter 7

Hyo was in his world of darkness and waking dreams again. But something had clicked in his head, and his mind was racing suddenly. If everyone was dead, if no one was here - if only. If only he could wipe North Korea off the face of the Earth, so that no one would have to live this horrible life anymore. The starvation, the pain, the corpses in the streets that some people fed upon out of sheer desperation, all of it was so hideous. This wasn't life, this was a fate worse than death, something he'd never wish on his worst enemy. Could there be a way to destroy everything, leave these place devoid of human life so that no one would ever have to endure this agony ever again? It would be beautiful, a perfect place where no one knew pain, where they could drift into that eternal sleep called death and live there forever. The people were already dead inside. Everyone was a walking corpse as it was. It'd be a mercy massacre, wouldn't it?

Was leaving his family alive in this kind of place really the right thing? Was it really a good thing that they got to live, watching their neighbors starve to death and the people suffer while they ate? All around them the world was decaying, the people dying and the land befouled. This was the best he could do for them, and it wasn't good enough, wasn't anything close to good enough. What kind of world was this, where the most wonderful thing to ever happen was that he kept two people from starving? What kind of hero was he anyway? All these digimon and digivices, and this was all he could come up with? This was it. He had four super powered creatures from another dimension and all he'd done so far was murder and torture at the government's discretion. All he had done was create more pain. He was something lower than a murderer, just a tool, a person of mass destruction. Even his family could only hope for a long stretch of suffering instead of a small one. That was their brightest future. That was everyone's dream was to have the hunger eased, even if that meant the watching, the murder and torture all remained.

This was the merciful thing. And it was suicide, because surely the government would kill him once they realized what was happening, but suicide wasn't scary. Death wasn't a fear, a threat, to Ko Hyo. He looked forward to it whole heartedly. It was his friend, his reward, a promise of peace at long last after a lifetime of pain. It asked him to embrace it and spread its all encompassing mercy on the land, and he was so broken and tired that he did so. In the afterlife, whatever that was, no one would have to suffer. The government couldn't touch them there. They would be free. Free. The word brought tears to his eyes, though he was scarcely aware of his physical body as his digimon systematically tore the world apart. One of his closest friends had freed herself and left them all behind. He tried to tell himself it meant nothing, that it was even expected on some level, but it hurt. It hurt not because of what it was, but what the action represented. Everyone always lied to him and everyone always betrayed him.

He was never truly loved or valued, never protected and cherished, until he had found his partner. And then he had known whole new dimensions of pain. He knew what it was like to have someone he loved more than anyone else alive be tortured and beaten. He knew what it was like to have his only companion brainwashed into learning how to be a perfect puppet for the world around him. He saw the way they were all dying inside, the way the sparks of hope that had once defined the digimon slowly died out. The world was a cold, cruel place that only got worse with every passing day. Each moment he spent awake was proof that life wasn't worth living. Life was filled with pain and grief, agony and misery, and overwhelming sadness. The only thing people could hope for was a release from the slow pain of starvation. He'd seen people beg for death. Their eyes held such unfathomable horror. Their souls were trapped in their bodies, begging for escape from this misery. There was no such thing as a future for any of them. Even he didn't have one, not really. His life was over, everything was decided, and there was no hope of anything getting better, so the way he looked at it he had nothing to lose or gain. That was life in North Korea, no hope or despair, only emptiness.

Hyo was sobbing. He was on his knees, arms limp at his side, eyes fixed unseeingly straight ahead, face tilted skyward. Expressionless but shaking with the force of his tears, he neither saw nor heard the painful deaths of those around him. His digivices were pulsing dark black. And he defied all the laws of physics and fell, into darkness and nothingness, until he hit sand. Dark grey sand, to be precise. He refocused his vision and found himself on a beach in a monochrome world. He wondered if this was the afterlife. It seemed nice. He could lay here forever and sleep here, safe from the nightmare of being alive. But he could feel his pulse in his head. So then, where was this place? Slowly, he stood, and looked around the unfamiliar world. Somehow his clothes had changed in getting him here. That was insane, yet he didn't have enough spirit left in him to think too hard about it. He was like the walking dead, spiritless and without curiosity, deprived of all his basic emotions until all that was left was apathy and sadness.

There was something on the ground, half buried in the sand. It was an egg of some sort, round and smooth with a foreign symbol on it. When he touched it, it glowed warmly under his touch. Then it let out a loud sound, akin to a scream, and fell out of his hands, glow retreating. He did not attempt to pick it up again. He did, however, see that it had the color of SnowAgumon and the piece of children's building brick that ToyAgumon was made of on it. Dumbfounded, he knelt beside it. There was something familiar about it, so familiar and right, but he felt so empty that he couldn't quite grasp the meaning of what was in front of him. This would have made sense before when he wasn't so broken. He knew that. He knew it was rejecting him because of what he had become. What he did not know was what it was or why it mattered so much to him. It felt like he'd just been spat on. His obsidian eyes began to tear up, though he didn't feel sad himself, just detached and ignored like he always did. As he watched, his digivices crumbled into dust and faded into the sand like they were never there. He was more alone in that moment than he had ever been, and he wondered vaguely if things were capable of getting any worse. It was then that he heard the hissing.

There were dark, amphibious dragon like things crawling towards him. And he didn't have the motivation or emotion within him to run away, so he watched them instead as they hissed at him. At first they were incomprehensible, their red eyes glowing as they circled him. Ten, twelve, he lost count as their finned forelegs left prints in the sand around him. It took him a while to recognize the dialect they were using, since their voices butchered it intensely. When he slowly began to understand their words, he felt confused and lost.

"Not the real one, you can't be, it's not yours."

"He has to be, it let him pick it up."

"Then he's corrupted. Filthy and dirty."

"I can see it in his eyes."

Real what, he wondered to himself. The real Digidestined? Well, yes, he was one of them. He wasn't really meant to handle this many digimon. The effort required to digivolve everyone was making him dizzy and every action was a strain. He was, however, indeed a real Digidestined. The digivice and partner had appeared in his bed one morning as sudden as a lightning bolt. He was no fake. But he _was_, even he admitted, corrupted. He was no longer the person he had once been, the boy who had been self-promoted to parent and the optimist. He'd tried so hard once to make his family proud at school and tried to smile through the hunger and pain. He'd tried to be good. He had never said anything that might get him into trouble. Then he'd been given SnowAgumon and everything had fallen apart. He had learned to compromise his values, sanity and dignity for the sake of his family. He had learned how to kill someone slowly and laboriously, denying them death until they'd told him all their secrets. He'd learned how to kill someone in a flashy manner to help promote the notion Digidestined should be turned in to the government immediately. He'd learned how to parrot empty lines at people and make it halfway convincing.

He'd lost something along the way, however, that wasn't so easy to get back. He'd lost his will to live. He'd lost his hope. His motivation was long gone. All he wanted was for the pain to stop now. Perhaps that was all he was capable of wanting. He wasn't a hero and he never had been. He was a weapon that had eventually turned in upon itself. The strange monsters circled and mocked him, waiting for a reaction. Instead, he simply sat there, lost as he always was in a sea of darkness, the one the world had forgotten. It was too late to fix his mistakes as a Digidestined, too late to take hold of this egg thing and try to control his digimon. There was no hope for his home country now. He wasn't even sure if he regretted what he'd done, or if he was in the right. Everything was blurry and uncertain. The sand underneath him was cold. He felt dazed as the swarm around him grew. Lost. Alone. Abandoned. Just another day in the life of Ko Hyo.

There was a light, in the sky. It was golden, the only color in this world that he'd seen besides the red of the monsters eyes. As he watched, the light widened and someone stepped out of it, onto the sand. Familiar eyes the color of bright gold metal reached out to him, entranced him. Blue black hair glistened in the dull light. Hyun-Seo. He whispered her name like a prayer as she stepped closer, her digivice clutched in her hand. Her Patamon flew towards him and the creatures scattered, hissing some final insults at the North Korean before retreating. Shakily, he stood, looking at her with new tears in his eyes. Too beaten down to care about his appearance or how weak he looked, he was suddenly struck with the weight of what he'd done, and the tears began to roll down his cheeks. He closed his eyes tightly, hanging his head. Her arms wrapped around him, strong and warm, but he didn't deserve her comfort. He pulled away, shaking, voice wavering and full of pain.

"I've… I've done something horrible, Hyun-Seo. I didn't mean it, I just wanted… I just needed…" He took a deep breath. "I wanted to free people from their pain. And I know it's bad… I know I shouldn't have, but…" He looked at her, utterly at a loss. "It made sense at the time. I'm sorry."

The South Korean girl gripped him by the shoulders. "We're getting you out of here. Then, we're going to talk. A _lot_. First, just tell me what you did."

"It's more like what I'm doing… It's still happening. Everyone's going to die and it's all my fault. I just wanted the pain to stop…" He paused, trying to keep from rambling. "My digimon are killing everyone. And…" he looked at the place where his digivices should be, and hung his head in shame. "I cannot stop them now."


End file.
